The present invention pertains to a chronic excess fluid drainage device. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a vesicular drainage device permitting unidirectional flow of excess fluid collections into the bladder.
In medicine there are a variety of conditions which result in pathologic chronic collection of bodily fluids. Chronic pericardial effusions, normopressure hydrocephalus, hydrocephalus, chronic pulmonary effusion, and ascites are but a few of the conditions in which chronic fluid collections persist and result in increased morbidity and mortality.
These conditions currently are treated by one of two methods: 1) external drainage with a high-risk of infection and long-term requirement for multiple punctures, 2) drainage to another body-cavity, or 3) various drugs. For pericardial effusions and hydrocephalus of all types, the treatment of choice is drainage to another region of the body. For pericardial effusions this entails a pericardial window, a highly invasive procedure in which a large section of the external heart cavity is removed. For hydrocephalus, the treatment typically involves the use of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt draining the cerebrospinal fluid into the peritoneal cavity. This device frequently becomes clogged due to the proteinaceous environment of the peritoneal cavity and requires removal or revision.
One conception of the present invention pertains to an ascites drainage device. More specifically, said conception pertains to a peritoneovesicular drainage device permitting unidirectional flow of peritoneal fluid from the peritoneal cavity into the bladder.
Ascites is a highly debilitating complication associated with many medical conditions including liver failure and congestive heart failure. Untreated ascites can result in respiratory compromise, compression of the inferior vena cava (a vital blood vessel) and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (a life-threatening condition). In order to treat chronic ascites, medicine has turned to both drugs and surgery.
The drugs required to treat ascites are typically long-term and frequently result in complications. The most common pharmaceutical treatment of ascites involves the use of diuretics to remove fluid from patient's body through their urine. The difficulty with this treatment, though, is that fluid is removed from the entire body, including the circulating volume of blood, and can result in excessive loss of fluid required to perfuse the vital organs of the human body. Thus, even with religious application, though, the medicines frequently fail. In this case, surgical, or invasive, procedures are indicated.
Currently the treatment of choice is called paracentesis. In paracentesis, the peritoneal fluid is drained through the abdominal wall via the insertion of a needle through the abdominal wall into the peritoneal cavity. This procedure, though, is only a temporary fix as the ascites quickly refills the peritoneal cavity in most chronic conditions. Furthermore, repeated paracenteses put the patient at increased risk for a life-threatening infection of their peritoneal cavity. Other surgical/invasive procedures involve treatment of the cause of the ascites (for example the Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt) but these measures also frequently result in complications, which are often serious, and are thus performed hesitantly.
The present invention avoids the difficulties associated with the current therapies for chronic ascites, namely, the procedure allows the drainage of peritoneal fluid without 1) the serious complications of pharmaceuticals, 2) the inconvenience, the substantial costs and the increased risk of infection associated with frequent paracenteses and 3) the multiple severe complications associated with more invasive and risky surgical operations to treat the cause of ascites.
None of the existing devices are able to drain the peritoneal cavity except through temporary transabdominal insertion of a drainage catheter. These devices provide little improvement over the intermittent punctures of paracentesis and result in increased rates of infection if left in place for any length of time. The present invention will obviate the need for a long-term abdominal incision and, therefore, will eliminate the associated increased risk of serious infection.